


Summer Scales

by flurry_of_beaus



Category: RWBY
Genre: AU, Dragon AU, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Abuse, It was like, Other, Ruby is trans, also blake and ilia kinda cuss a bit, also everyone is just kinda a little older too, blake is nb, but blake's still got that shit going for them, but like theres dragons that are cat to dog sized, ilia more than blake but there is some swearing, im not sure, its like a real world but also dragons that are pet sized, its not slow burn but its not too fast either?, like early twenties for everyone? its not really explictly stated, so no grimm or huntsman, theres a lot of headcannons for characters, very in past, yang is also trans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:07:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 19,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21524956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flurry_of_beaus/pseuds/flurry_of_beaus
Summary: Blake Belladonna, following a rough course of events in their past, lives in an apartment alone with Ilia as their only friend. When a suggestion of getting a pet arises, they resort to Summer Scales, a dragon nursery ran by Taiyang Xiao Long and his daughters. As the adoption process goes by, Blake finds themself recovering from past wounds with the help of an overprotective dragon and bubbly red-haired friend (or many more than that?).
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Ruby Rose
Comments: 18
Kudos: 75





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Huge shoutout to my beta readers, y'all are the best. And just uh, any typo in text messages are deliberate, as much as that hurts me.

Ruby, as ever, woke up to Quicksilver jumping on her chest. Pulling at the sheets that the short girl was curled up under. The silver scaled dragon, thankfully cat-sized so he didn’t cause too many breathing issues, was an early riser. Meaning his person had to be as well. 

Besides, Ruby had work. She helped her dad out with running the nursery, Summer Scales. Her sister Yang mostly trained the hatchlings, taught them to behave and not set everything on fire. Whereas Ruby and Tai ran it, kept it from burning to the ground. Handled adoption paperwork, kept the dragons up to date on vet check-ups. 

“Fine fine,” she muttered, letting the weasel-like dragon fly up to her neck, wrapping around it and licking her face a bit. Ruby gave the base of his horns a good scratch, earning a happy squeak-like roar. 

Ruby was surprisingly good at changing and getting ready for the day with a dragon that would claw her back if she moved too quickly. Keeping him balanced, feeding him and herself. Rushing downstairs, she saw her dad down already. The greying blonde was watching their corgi, Zwei, play with some of the youngest hatchlings. Tai glanced over at Ruby when he heard the bottom step creak at the sudden weight on it. 

“Ah, you’re up. Earlier than usual.” Tai smiled, watching Quicksilver fly over to him, perching on his head. “Control your dragon please.”

“I try. He likes to be tall.” Ruby countered easily, watching the hatchlings look up at the silver dragon with wide eyes. They still had small and weak wings, at best could flutter up and down. “Anyways, what do you need me to do today?”

“Well, keep an eye on the front. Shadowkeep has been causing some trouble. It seems to think everyone is out to eat her clutchmates.” Tai started, scooping Quicksilver off his head and putting him on the counter. “Yang had to stop her from nearly biting Firecrackers’ neck.”

“Of course. Don’t let anyone get eaten.” Ruby started, getting Quicksilver to get back on her shoulders. 

Checking through the applications for people wanting a dragon, Ruby lost track of time. Summer Scales was open, it just was the slow season for people getting pet dragons. There was always a spike during the holidays, parents thinking one would be easy for their kids. Tai and Ruby had a thorough process, so the people that would later return a dragon didn’t often get one. 

The door opened, Quicksilver alerting Ruby as well as the bell at the door. Ruby glanced to see a feline faunus, dark ears falling at the bell the slowing coming back up, looking around somewhat nervously. Hidden in a dark hoodie, hands shoved into the pocket.

“Welcome to Summer Scales, dragon nursery. What can I do for you?” Ruby kept her tone polite, in business mode.

“I was looking to get a dragon actually,” they said, and Ruby didn’t miss the anxious touch in their voice. “Heard good things about this place.”

Ruby couldn’t help her slight smile, pulling out one of the forms. “Alright, here’s an application for adoption, once you’ve finished filling it out you can pass it over.” 

The faunus offered a small smile, noticing the silver dragon around Ruby’s neck. Quicksilver had fallen asleep, his breath tickling her neck. 

Ruby had expected a comment about him, but they didn’t say anything. Maybe relaxed a bit more. The sounds of a pen scratching the paper filled the room, as some hatchlings ran into the lobby, two hiding behind the faunus’ boots. They seemed amused by the small dragons, gently pushing them away with a soft look in their eyes. Ruby made a mental note about that. 

Once the sheet was filled out, they put the application on the front desk. Ruby noticed the name, Blake Belladonna. And saw the note that was made, about how they didn’t use she/her. But it was a legal form, so had to put the assigned sex. Ruby could understand that pain, she made sure to keep that in mind. 

“I will give you a call when the application is reviewed.” Ruby offered a comforting smile, and Blake returned the look. “Thanks for the help with the hatchlings, by the way, new clutch. First few days are always… wild.”

“No problem. They're cute, getting used to the world.” Blake muttered, pausing at the door. “Have a good day.”

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leaving Summer Scales and getting a taxi back to their apartment, Blake plugged in their earbuds and started music. Mostly to settle their nerves, which weren’t having a great day. Paperwork wasn’t fun, especially of the legal variety. Still doubting and second-guessing this plan.

It wasn’t even their plan, not originally. Blake was happy to mope and avoid life and it’s problems. Their friend, Ilia, had other ideas and was not happy with the thought of them supposedly wasting away in their anxiety. For a while, the chameleon faunus had even lived with them, just after everything and to get them back to sort of functioning. Until she was happy enough and confident that things would continue to improve. 

Which things had stopped really improving. Hadn’t really fallen back, not much anyways. Maybe eating a little less, just less motivated to get out of bed and get through the day. Other than work, just a job at the library, and working on improving writing so that they could eventually become an author, Blake didn’t do much. 

Blake mostly hid that, trying to not be a burden on Ilia. She seemed to respect that and had suggested getting a pet instead. Many people have emotional support animals after all, and Ilia did point out that Blake did like dragons anyways. Those made for good emotional support animals, and Blake caved. 

It was better than taking Ilia from her own life anyways. She didn’t need that and if it put her at ease, then it worked. By the end of the taxi ride, Blake was ready to just go back to bed. A text from Ilia though was reason enough to not do that. 

Ilia: just wondering if you want to go to dinner  
Ilia: also if you went out dont go back to bed, write or somethng

Blake paused, leaning against a closed door. Debating how to respond, if they even really wanted to go out again. It was probably easier, just agreeing to Ilia’s plans. Blake really didn’t even hate the idea of dinner. The apartment was kind of short on food, mostly just some cereal that Blake would snack on, some tea, and a few other snacky foods. Stuff to make sandwiches.

Blake: dinner sounds fine

Blake just moved over to the living room, which had a nice smallish desk. Blake kept their laptop there, it was a comfy chair and it was easy to work on writing, research, even just browse the internet. Opening their writing program, just to write some random practice write. Not even bothering to name the document. 

It was a time killer, and it was something to stay awake doing. Helped with easing some of the anxiety as well, which was always a bonus. Despite growing up in Atlas and knowing of some high-end restaurants, Ilia didn’t like going to fancy places. Sure, any place she went to was good, but nothing fancy and high end. Partially due to them being cold and stuffy, according to her, and also the elites always made Blake uncomfortable. 

Ilia sent them a text about an hour before she said she’d pick them up, knowing that Blake didn’t need much time to get ready. Just gave them a warning of “look good”. Meaning Blake just changed into something simple but nice, quickly ran a brush through their hair. Gathered their keys and phone, made sure that they had everything they needed. Earbuds in case of anxiety. 

Once Ilia did arrive, Blake ducked into the small car and closed the door with a soft thud. Fastening the seat belt, and offering a small smile to their friend. “Hey.”

Ilia offered a smile as well, shifting gears and backing out of the parking spot. “Sooo…” she started, and Blake’s ears fell a little. 

“Yes, I went to the place. Filled out an application for adoption.” Blake sighed, looking out the window to avoid Ilia’s gaze. “Now it’s not up to me.” 

“Just making sure.” Ilia sighed, gripping the steering wheel. “Let me know if I get to be too much, okay?”

“You will know. Trust me.” Blake muttered, keeping their golden gaze aimed out the window. “Besides, you mean well.”

“Doesn’t mean I should get away with murder.” Ilia glanced over at them, eyebrows pinching together. “You have to trust your own judgement.”

Blake just let out a low scoff, glancing over with a bitter gaze. Ilia’s eyes sharpened to a soft glare, shifting to a bit of a red. 

“You do. Messed up once. You’ve got your head screwed on tight, now more than ever. Just trust yourself again.” Ilia muttered, her voice going soft and almost hard to hear. “I mean, you picked yourself back up.”

“You were there, doing probably everything.” Blake countered, and Ilia’s next breath was a sharp sigh.

“So?” she started, and Blake knew the signs of a lecture. “Blake, you were in a royally fucked place, in every sense of that statement. You weren’t just going to walk away from that, like nothing happened. You can’t blame yourself for needing some help. How many times do I have to say that until it sinks in? But look at you know, you’re living on your own, you are working and starting to write. Pretty damn good progress, if I’m being honest.”

Blake didn’t respond, fighting the urge to bite the inside of their cheek. “What size? Dragon.” Ilia changed the topic. 

“About the size of a medium-sized dog,” Blake said, eyes narrowed at the topic. “Why?”

“Well, I was just curious. Wasn’t sure what size dragon you wanted.” Ilia shrugged, then letting out a long stream of curses as someone cut her off. “Why that size?”

“Still small enough to cuddle with, but big enough that most people will think twice about coming near,” Blake explained, shrugging a bit. “It’s just a nice size for a pet.”

“Right. Makes sense.” Ilia nodded, craning her neck to find the driveway to the restaurant. “You ready?” she asked, and Blake offered a small nod, a strained smile on their face.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so Ren show's up in this chapter, meaning time to point out some more headcanons of mine
> 
> Ren- Non-binary  
> Nora- trans female
> 
> I have... a lot of headcanons for characters. Assume no one is cis in a thing I write.

“So, out of all the applications, any of them strike you as good? Anyone that came in?” Tai asked, after flipping the sign to the closed side. Sitting down and slouching against in one of the chairs in the lobby. 

“Well, the person that helped handle the small hatchlings, Blake, they seemed pretty good. Super gentle with the babies, just guided them back to their siblings.” Ruby started. Pulled out the applicant. “Not after a breeding dragon, just a companion. Emotional support.” 

“Interesting.” Tai muttered, and Ruby glanced over to see his eyes closed. “Just ushered the babies away?”

“Probably wasn’t sure if they were supposed to do that, honestly. Wasn’t bothered at all by them though, seems to like dragons a lot.” Ruby started, watching Quicksilver poke at the paper. “Probably would appreciate a quieter dragon, they're a feline faunus.”

Tai let out a thoughtful sound, slowly opening his eyes and walking over. Ruby slid the paperwork over to him, and let him read it. “They’ve got good penmanship.” he muttered, looking at the paper. 

Ruby continued to flip through the paperwork, separating by the normal standard for the first flip through. Absolute ‘no’s’ or maybes. Rarely was there an absolute ‘yes’, but then, normally hatchlings didn’t go straight to a possible adopter and not complain about being gently ushered away.

“Well, Belladonna seems good. Maybe get Yang’s opinion, since they did have some interaction with some dragons here already.” Tai nodded, a small smile. “How’s the sorting going?”

“Very few ‘no’s’ so far.” Ruby offered, looking up at him briefly. “Yang should be getting back soon, right?”

“Yeah. She was working on some obedience training with Shadowkeeper and her siblings. Those always run long.” Tai sighed. “The siblings aren’t bad. It’s Shadowkeeper. She seems to think people are going to hunt her siblings down. She’d make a decent protector, but she’s not clicked with anyone yet. Certainly hasn’t with any of us.”

The two continued reviewing paperwork, until Yang and her dragon, Firecracker, entered the lobby. The golden large dragon just flopped on the ground, one paw tucked under his snout. “How was your day?” she asked the both of them. 

“Well, there was some small action of hatchlings sneaking in here. The only other person in the lobby helped get them back out of here.”

“Oh?” Yang asked, a curious quirk to her eyebrow rising. “How’d they handle the hatchlings?” Ruby definitely noticed the guarded and suspicious tone to her sister’s voice.

“Well, two hid behind their leg, and they just ushered them back to their siblings. Super gentle, just making sure that they didn’t get caught up. Seemed maybe a little anxious. Like they weren’t sure if they were supposed to do that or not.” Ruby explained, her voice bright and cheerful. “But also like they have had dragons in the past. Not an amateur.”

Yang just let out a suspicious noise, nodding. “They a maybe or?” she trailed off, watching Quicksilver glide down to Firecracker, pestering the golden scaled dragon. 

“A maybe. But… we will worry about that tomorrow, call them up. Set up another meeting, more formal interview.” Tai started, “but enough work for today.”

Both Ruby and Yang nodded, following their father upstairs to their personal home. The dragons, and Zwei, followed them up. The shop was locked up, and lights turned off. After that, it was just getting out of the work mood, and getting ready for some minor relaxation. As much as their personal dragons allowed.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sleep, as usual, was a pointless endeavor. Blake was still high strung from the day, and that meant two things. Falling asleep in the first place, then nightmares rose in the sad attempt of it. Blake just gave up on sleep after waking up when it was still dark.

Settling in their old chair with a cup of tea and a good book, Blake tried to pass the time. Checked their scroll for any messages, and for the time. Just shy of 3 AM, earning a long and depressed sigh. 

Still, Blake managed to get caught up in the book, and lost track of time. The blinds drawn blocked the sun when it rose, the glare was irritating more than anything. But still, a few hours had passed, and the book was finished. Really, just another romance book, quick to read and easy enough to get caught up in. Nothing unique, but it held their attention at least.

There still wasn’t much in the fridge, leftovers from last night’s dinner as the only addition. Almost out of eggs, but just enough to make a small breakfast. They’d have to get more, it was about the only thing they could really bother to make in the morning. And Ilia would raise hell if she found out that Blake wasn’t eating three meals a day.

Around 10, the sound of their scroll ringing startled them, and Blake tentatively answered the call, pulling it to one of their human ears.

“Hello?” they asked, eyebrows pinching together. They recognized the voice of Ruby, the girl from the dragon nursery.

“This is Blake right? Did I put the right number in?” she asked, and Blake subconsciously nodded, realizing quickly that the short girl couldn’t see it.

“Yes, it is.” they relaxed a little, turning down the TV. 

“Perfect! Anyways, just wanted to let you know that Taiyang, the other guy that handles all the paperwork, looked over the application, and wants to set up an interview in person.” Ruby started, talking quickly. Blake had to do a double take, mostly from the speed of her speech.

“Alright…” Blake started, hoping that their anxiety wasn’t too clear in their voice. “Is there a certain time that would work?”

“Well, would you prefer to talk to Taiyang about this? The interview would be with him.” Ruby asked, slowing down her speech thanks to assumably having to think a bit.

“That would be easier.” Blake nodded again, ears flicking in annoyance at that.

“Alright. One second please.” Ruby said, then clearly pulling the phone away and trying to cover its speaker. “Dad! You need to plan out a meeting!” she shouted, likely underestimating how good Blake’s hearing was.

Blake didn’t quite catch the words that the other person spoke, but soon a new voice came out their scroll’s speaker. "As Ruby has said, I'm Taiyang, the owner of Summer Scales. What is your schedule like?”

“Well, other than working, I’m not too busy. And I’m off the rest of this week.” Blake started, feeling anxiety spike a bit, and trying to quell it as much as possible.

“Kay… Well, how does today sound? Around noon.” Taiyang asked, sounding deep in thought. “The Lotus Cafe?”

“Sounds good.” Blake glanced at the clock on the wall, one feline ear flicking. That was enough time to get ready, and Blake had literally nothing else to work on. Plus the sooner all this was figured out, the better for their anxiety. 

“Perfect. See you soon.” the man had a smile in his voice. It sounded like he was writing something down. Then the call was hung up, and Blake lowered their scroll down to the nearest surface with a deep sigh. 

There was time for a quick shower, and then just getting a decent outfit on now. Couldn’t spend all day in pajamas in the end, no matter how much that was tempting. A low ponytail looked nice enough, just to tame the long hair.

Time passed quickly, and Blake grabbed their keys and phone, headed out of the small apartment, Blake got a taxi to head to the small cafe. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a nice casual cafe. Run by a nice couple, Blake was always tempted to call them friends, but didn’t quite know if that was really true. 

Still, they ordered their usual tea and found a booth a bit more in the background. Soon enough, a greying blonde walked in, and caught Blake’s gaze with greyish blue eyes. He ordered something, then walked over. 

“So….” Blake muttered, not quite meeting his gaze. Sipping at their tea nervously, and their free hand was tapping against the table.

“You look anxious.” He commented, voice soft. “Saw on the paperwork that some sort of emotional support animal was what you were after.” 

“Yeah. It was… my friends suggestion, but it’s a pretty good idea. Figured, dragons tend to be pretty good at that. And most people think twice about going near them.” Blake explained, ears perking up a little. “And… I don’t really like dogs much.”

“Makes sense. Dragons can be a lot of work, but they are very good at emotional support, especially when trained for that.” Taiyang nodded, not pressing on the last bit. “So, just have a few questions. Making sure that you could support a dragons needs and all of that. Ruby and I both think that personality wise however, it’s just finding the right match, based on how you handled the hatchlings.”

He wasn’t nearly as stiff and professional as Blake thought he’d be, something that they found to be a slight comfort. Still professional, just a little more relaxed and casual at the same time. Blake gave a small nod and smile, and Taiyang’s face lit up.

“How are your finances? The food that we recommend is not the cheapest, but it’s good quality and the dragons we keep do well on it.”

“Financially, I’m pretty good. Job pays well enough, and I tend to save as much as I can.” Blake answered, thinking for a second. 

Taiyang let out a thoughtful hum, a pleased smile growing. “And you’d be prepared for any medical needs that a dragon might have?”

“Yes.” Blake nodded, not having to think at all. Their dad had a dragon for a long, and they knew of several good vets in the area. Hell, their dad’s dragon probably was still alive, just with how long they tended to live.

Taiyang ran a few more questions by them, and he seemed satisfied by all the answers. “Alright, so I’ll talk with Ruby and Yang; she’s the other employee, handles most of the training; see how they feel, and if everything is in order, we will call you back. Have a house visit to see if your home would be suitable for a dragon.”

Blake nodded, letting out a deep sigh when Taiyang left and just slouched against the booth, closing their eyes. Social interaction was exhausting, even if it was for a good purpose. Their tea was getting cold, something that for once, Blake couldn’t bring themself to care about. 

“What was all that about?” A calm voice asked, and one of their ears flicked as both eyes opened. Blake recognized the tall dark haired human, their magenta streak looked brighter than during Blake’s last visit to the cafe.

“Hey Ren. Ilia kept getting on my back about how living alone was bad for me, and that maybe having an animal would be good.” Blake explained, quickly finished the tea. “So… dealing all of that process.”

“Fun fun.” Ren gave a slow nod, magenta eyes narrowing. “Explains why you were socializing with anyone other than Nora, Ilia, or me.”

“I could simply stop coming here. Just saying.” Blake countered the tease, a fond eye roll despite the tone of voice. 

“We’d miss you though. And I’ve heard something about your opinions of the other cafes in the area.” Ren’s honestly cheeky smile was enough to kill Blake’s mild annoyance, and they just gave them a wry smile. “I’m going to assume you want another cup of tea?” Blake just gave a small nod in response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know if anyone feels OOC, and feel free to just comment. makes my day and I need validation


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fuck it, double posting today. Y'all I'm actually editing so you get more content.
> 
> And Ilia is just that one mom friend that loves Blake but is like "how are you still alive..." and will give them shit about their life choices. She means well and only does it since it really doesn't bother Blake.

Ruby was just watching Yang start to train the youngest hatchlings, now that they had figured out how to run around without tripping over their claws or tails. Some of them still didn’t seem aware of their tails, honestly. 

“Shadowkeeper! Enough!” Yang let out a sharp objection, eyes narrowing on the panther-like dragon, who was growling at the hatchlings. “They aren’t even near your clutchmates!” Ruby didn’t quite catch her later grumbles, but they probably weren’t that nice. 

“She’ll have to go to a place that’s got no other pets,” Ruby called out, flipping the closed sign over and walking into the large indoor dragon room. Quicksilver flew over to play with some of the other dragons his size, flicking his tail through her hair as he went away. 

“If we find anyone that she even likes. She doesn’t even like you, and most of the dragons do.” Yang sighed, shaking her head. Firecracker was keeping an eye on the hatchlings, distracting them with his tail. 

The door opening cut Ruby off, and both girls turned to look over towards it. Ruby’s suspicious gaze dropped at the sight of her dad, and she walked off, letting Yang get back to work. Quicksilver flew back to her, perching on her shoulders.

“If you are going to flip the sign, at least lock the door.” He joked, locking the door. It was after hours anyways. “I’m sure the two of you want to know how the interview went?”

“Yes!” Ruby couldn’t help her growing grin, she loved the process of finding homes for their dragons, the news of each interview. 

“Well, come in here then, I have hatchlings to handle,” Yang called out, and Tai gave a shrug, following Ruby in. 

The two people not training dragons sat down on a supply crate, mostly kept as scratching posts but made handy seats. A low growl came from the direction of Shadowkeeper, which Ruby and Tai ignored, she could settle down. 

“Alright, so everything checks out. Financially pretty good, seems to save as much money as possible, meaning there’s always emergency funds for a vet trip. They’ve also had dragons in the past, at least during their childhood. So is aware of some health risks that dragons can have.” Tai started, one of his legs bouncing. “Definitely seems to like animals, and is realistic about how to take care of them.”

“What type of dragon though? Just a pet, or?” Yang asked. “I know you’ve said they seem anxious.”

“Well first off, we need to make sure housing is good for a dragon.” Ruby started. “Kind of two steps ahead of us here, Yang. But… I would definitely say a protective dragon. More of a proper companion, emotional support.”

“Meaning, the medium dog-sized is probably a good bet. But yes, Ruby is right. We need to make sure that their home is dragon-safe first.” Tai nodded, looking around. “Probably shouldn’t be a hatchling, but not a fully matured. Can be trained to read their warning signs.”

“Alright, well, Imma work with these guys for a while. I’ll eat later.” Yang said. Ruby read in between the lines, her sister wanted them out of her hair. They were distracting the hatchlings, and they weren’t at the point in training that they had to learn to ignore distractions.

Tai left with a dramatic sigh, following Ruby upstairs. “So, you want to do the house inspection? Probably should set that up sometime next week, make sure this isn’t rushed. I realize they left a bit of an impression on you, but you are supposed to be professional.”

“The-they didn’t leave an impression!” she objected, feeling her face warm up, quickly. “I mean, sure they are cute and all that, but this is purely professional!” She really didn’t appreciate her dad calling attention to her lack of a social life, despite being pretty friendly. Making friends was hard, and the family business took most of her time anyways.

Tai just gave her a knowing look, stepping into the kitchen. “Sure. Anyways, let them know about this, maybe just go out for a friendly hang out. You could get out of the house and away from work more than you do. Call in the morning though.”

Ruby just gave a short nod, dumping her dragon off on the couch. He gave an indignant squeak-growl, curling up on one of the throw pillows.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By the time they got home, Blake was just tired. Ready to pass out. Ignoring their friend’s worries about skipping meals, what she didn’t know would not kill her in this case, Blake just locked the door behind them and headed to their room. Just flopped onto the bed, face buried in a pillow.

Worn out from all the interaction and stress of the day, which mostly was their own fault, nothing was as bad as they made it out to be, sleep came easily. Once they were curled up under the blanket, Blake was gone. 

Surprisingly, the nightmares were minimal. Not bad enough to wake up from, but bad enough to remember the next morning. And their stomach was objecting to the severe lack of food in it. Maybe there was something in the fridge? 

Begrudgingly getting out of bed, only bothering to straighten out the blankets from old habits, Blake wandered to the kitchen. Set their old kettle to boil and pulled down a coffee mug for tea. 

It didn't take too long for the water to boil, a sharp and honestly somewhat painful hissing sound resonating from the kettle. Letting the water absorb the flavor of the tea bag. Then it was on to finding breakfast. 

They hadn't gone grocery shopping yet, something that really should have been done but they were just tired. Done with people as a whole, with society. 

The screen of their scroll lit up with a new message, and Blake sighed, seeing it was from Ilia. Of course, she would know that they were up already. 

Ilia: morning!

Blake quickly sent a message back, typing quickly and not bothering to fix the spelling. Settled for the worryingly low amount of dry cereal that was leftover, it was going stale. 

Ilia: do anythng yesterday?  
Blake: had an interview with the owner of Summer Scales.  
Ilia: kay…. How'd it go?  
Blake: fine I think. Seemed optimistic about everything  
Ilia: good good. Need to do anything today? Shopping?

Blake paused, not sure if they really wanted to admit that they had put off shopping until supplies were low or just gone. A bad habit that had formed, and hadn’t been addressed yet. Not successfully at least.

Ilia: Judging by ur silence, u need to go shopping. i’ll pick u up latr

The inner scholar in Blake died a little more at Ilia’s atrocious spelling, but they sent Ilia a text agreeing to the plan. If they really argued against it, Ilia would back off, but Blake didn’t fight the plan for a few reasons. The lack of food in the house wasn’t even a key player. Blake did enjoy Ilia’s company and was still not the best at living on their own. Not after everything. 

Just taking their tea to their desk and logging on to the laptop, doing more research on taking care of dragons. They’d done probably more than enough, borderline excessive honestly, but it was something to do, and Blake wasn't that confident in everything related to caring for a pet. It had been, years honestly. Not since they left their parents home. 

Blake wasn’t too worried about the furniture getting ruined, it wasn’t the best anyways. Just old furniture that they found at a thrift store that was comfortable enough and in decent enough shape. At some point, Blake planned on buying a nicer chair at least, the couch was fine but the chair wasn’t that comfortable anymore. The only piece of furniture not from a thrift store was the computer chair, something that Blake was picky about, and was going to spend more on. 

Just sipping at their tea, eyeing over the living space to make sure it wasn’t too messy or had any immediate danger lying around. It was pretty plain, all things considered. Partially since Blake didn’t want anything super busy, and they just didn’t own much anyways. 

Ilia didn’t take long to arrive, bearing a bag of some sort of fast food breakfast sandwich as well. She quickly made herself at home, stretched out on the couch and tossing the food to Blake. “You, need to eat a proper breakfast. Not just whatever you have lying around.” 

“I-” Blake started to object, silencing themself at Ilia’s look. The sandwich was nice anyways, something warm. 

“How long did you put this off?” Ilia asked in a dramatic sigh, looking around. “Other than tea, that is sort of…”

“It’s the one thing I don’t forget to keep stocked up, I know.” Blake sighed, ears flat. “Pretty much been put off until there’s nothing left. I was busy, and it slipped my mind.”

“Hey, it’s alright.” Ilia started, seeing Blake’s look. “You are doing well, all things considered. And don’t go down that path. I help because I want to, not because I’m made to. Mind if I have some tea, it’s too early to go shopping?”

“Help yourself, you know where it is.” Blake shrugged, spinning the computer chair back around to look at their computer screen again. “Think the kettle is running low on water, might have to fill it up.”

“Thanks for the warning,” Ilia responded, probably looking over her shoulder. “So, figured we could head out in an hour or so? Are you expecting any calls today?”

“Maybe one from Summer Scales, I’m not sure.” Blake shrugged, glancing at their scroll now that it was on their mind. No new messages or missed calls. “Don’t know how long this process takes, honestly. It’s seemed pretty quick so far. If I’m being honest.”

“Uh, yeah can’t help you there. Never done something like this. And honestly, I’m not sure I’d want a pet myself. I’m pretty much busy all the time, don’t have time for one.” Ilia let out a low sigh, “So, better get one that tolerates my existence, they will be seeing me a lot.”

The conversation died down, the two faunus had lived together long enough to not need to fill the room. Blake focused on their writing until Ilia made them get ready to head out, starting to look ready to head out. 

While they were out, traffic slowing down travel to almost a crawl, Blake’s scroll rang, and they recognized the number of Summer Scales. Ilia turned down the radio, thankfully stopping her tone-deaf singing to whatever she knew the words to. 

“Hello?” Blake asked, glancing out the window. Their ears fell briefly at the loud and cheerful voice that followed.

“It’s Ruby! just letting you know that we have discussed the answers given during the interview, and would like to schedule a house inspection.” She sounded, excited. “We tend to give about a week, to give people time to get their homes ready.”

“A week sounds about good, I work morning shifts all of next week, but I am free during the afternoon.” Blake thought out loud, nodding despite Ruby not being able to see that. 

“Great, how does Friday sound? For a specific date.” Ruby asked, her voice losing some volume as she was assumably looking at a calendar. However, it retained its fast pace. “Around four o’clock?”

“That works,” Blake confirmed. It gave them time to overthink everything a bit longer, and some time to relax.

“Before I hang up though, I was wondering. Do you want to hang out, just a friendly visit? Not work-related at all.” Now Ruby sounded nervous.

“How about this weekend? I’m busy today, but it would be good to get out of the house. Maybe get to properly meet your dragon?” Blake shrugged, and Ilia gave them a proud but perplexed look. 

“Sounds good!” Ruby’s voice was almost too loud, and she then calmed down it seemed. “Anyways, we can work out the plans for this weekend at a later time, I’ll text you. See you around.” 

Ruby hung up before Blake could say anything, and they gave a mock annoyed eye roll. It was rare to find someone whose mind ran faster than theirs. 

“So, what was that last bit?” Ilia asked, a teasing tone to her voice. “Perhaps actually having a social life?”

“Shut up.” Blake replied in a fake snap, grin ruining the tone and response. “Let’s just get done with shopping so I can go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Same old OOC thing and yeah, you all know the drill, I don't remember the exact wording. But let me know what you think, I love reading comments (and need validation cause I'm a little baby)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All I know for chapter count is at least 10. probably more thou, maybe around 15? anyways, posting will probably be every few days, I don't really know yet. I've written a lot in advanced, it took a while to figure out the title of this fic so it's really just whenever I feel like posting. 
> 
> Thinking that will be frequently though, I'm feeling confident about this one and have a sister fic planned for it

Friday rolled around quickly, and Ruby had put off panic until the last second she could. Quicksilver was very aware of this however, and insisted on wrapping around her neck, keeping her safe. After fighting his harness, something that Ruby had to put on him outside of the family home-slash-business but he despised. 

The plan was simple, meet up at the library Blake worked at after their shift. Tai had granted her access to his car, only requesting that she filled up the gas tank for him. It had been a good while since she drove alone, let alone with another person, but this would be fine. It’s all good. She grabbed some of her old CD’s, for music other than the radio.

The route to the library wasn’t too bad, and it was a familiar route. Ruby remembered going to the place a lot, especially during school. She fell on to old habits, driving here. And since they allowed pets, at least well behaved ones that were on a leash, Quicksilver could go in. 

Parking and heading in, car locked up, Ruby looked around for Blake. They weren’t at the front desk, and Ruby was early. And as she had found out quickly, Blake did not keep their scroll on them while working, so she couldn’t just text.

Ruby just wandered around, until she found them, currently stocking the shelves and organizing the books. Making sure nothing was leaning too much, or was out of place. This had to be the most relaxed Ruby had ever seen them, focused and calm. This was clearly therapeutic for them.

Still, she cleared her throat, as quietly as possible, grip tightening on Quicksilver’s leash. Blake’s ears flicked a few times, and they turned around, eyes wide then narrowing back to a relaxed, and amused, expression. 

“Sorry, didn’t notice you got here.” they offered an apology, glancing down at the silver dragon, who was straining against his line. “He behaved?”

“Normally, yes. Gets excited and friendly. Wants to you greet you.” Ruby chuckled a bit as she explained, Blake letting the dragon sniff at their knuckles. “His name is Quicksilver.”

“Pretty name.” Blake offered a small smile, glancing over at the clock. “I’m going to clock off, it’s a bit early but I was just killing time honestly. Really, was already done with work. Keep an eye on the dragon.”

Ruby let out a low sigh, a soft smile on her face. Quicksilver looked over at the sigh, head tilted curiously. Blake didn’t take too long to clock off and grab their things, one ear flicking idly. Ruby led them out to the car, and Blake didn’t bother adjusting the front set, even though their knees were brushing up against the dashboard. 

“If you need me to, I could hold Quicksilver for you.” Blake offered, glancing toward her, and the dragon she was pulling off the steering wheel. “Might help you drive safely.” 

“Sounds good. You can move the seat back you know, the dashboard can’t be comfortable on the knees.” Ruby passed her dragon over, and he very quickly got comfortable. Objected lightly when the seat was adjusted, but settled down at the quick backstroke he got.

“So, what’s the plan? Past picking me up at least?” Blake asked, one eyebrow raised as they glanced over at her. 

Pulling out of the parking spot, and leaving the parking lot, Ruby offered a shrug. “Other than for work, I like to let things happen as it comes up naturally. That’s not an issue, is it?”

“It’s… not what I usually do. But it’s fine.” Blake offered a small shrug, “honestly, a nice change of pace. From my norm.”

“Yeah?” Ruby asked, hoping she wasn’t prying too much. Blake seemed to pause, probably debating how to respond.

“Yeah. I mean, for one thing, normally the only person I spend time with outside of work is my old friend, Ilia. She’s basically part of my family, according to her. But she’s a fan of planning everything out. If she’s like ‘we are going shopping’ that is what we are doing.” Blake explained, a fond smile forming. “It’s sometimes nice. But I have to say, miss the days when I could just go out, without any plans. On a whim.”

“What happened? If you don’t mind me asking.” Ruby asked, her voice soft and sincere, but also curious. Blake let out a low sigh, ears falling a little.

“Had a pretty… bad relationship. Lasted a good number of years. Still recovering from everything.” Blake was not meeting Ruby’s gaze, voice taking a sharp edge to it. “Anyways.”

Blake’s tone at the last part of the comment was cue enough, they weren’t going to dwell on this topic. Something Ruby would respect for sure. “Right. Well, how does some coffee sound?”

Blake made a face of minor disgust at that, and Ruby chuckled a little. “More of a tea person, honestly. But there’s plenty of places that has both.”

“Sounds good!” Ruby smiled, and Blake glanced back at her, a slight eye roll forming at the high energy.

Ruby didn’t bother going into the chain cafe, it had a drive through and Quicksilver was a pain some days. Once they had their drinks, Ruby’s a very sugary latte and Blake’s the simplest tea the cafe had, Ruby just started driving again. 

“So, there’s a really good park for dragons, about as open air as they can get and still allow dragons to fly around a bit.” Ruby suggested, drumming her fingers to the beat of the song playing. 

“Sounds good. Would be a good place to know about.” Blake offered a shrug, watching Quicksilver’s tail flick to the beat of the song as well. 

Ruby just offered a small smile, and Blake’s small smile was a worthy reward. Ruby tried to maintain idle chatter, but Blake seemed pretty content to just be in the same car as her and say nothing. She did notice them humming along to the music a little however.

Quicksilver definitely recognized the park, wiggling eagerly at the sight of it. It was pretty crowded too, dragons of all sizes flying around and playing with each other. Lightweight balls being tossed around, other good toys. 

Ruby glanced over, reading Blake's expression. They were taking in the size of the crowds, probably preparing for how loud it would be. Seemed a little anxious, but also like they were trying to push it down. They definitely seemed interested in this place as well, just eyeing up the crowd. And they noticed Ruby looking at them, flashing a small smile. 

Ruby took back her dragons leash, and kept her grip as tight as possible without hurting him so he couldn't race ahead of them. Quicksilver got excited, and would forget his training when too excited. Entering the park, Ruby unclipped his leash from his harness, and gave him a stern look before letting go of his body, letting him fly off. 

"Is this place too loud?" Ruby asked, looking up at Blake. 

"It's fine. Its pretty large, so it doesn't have much of an echo." Blake offered, feline ears flicking as a young kid chased after a red dragon. 

Ruby tried again to make conversation start up. "So, with getting a dragon, you have any colors you like more?"

"Honestly, I don't really care what color their scales are." Blake started, glancing at her. "Why?"

"Well, just curious. Some people like reds or certain colors. Dad and I try to match more with personality and behaviors, but we will keep in mind specific colors if someone asks."

"Ah. That's a pretty good policy." Blake sounded thoughtful. "Why did you end up keeping Quicksilver?"

"Oh, he was one of the first few dragons we bred, and I got a little attached to him." Ruby started. "Plus, he wasn't the best at taking to his training, but listened to me enough that dad was willing to let me keep him. Yang, my sister and the dragon trainer, she's got one as well. Firecracker, pretty big and wild honestly. He was actually a rescue."

"Sounds like fun." Blake said, a relaxed smile forming. "I assume that she's going to be helping with training later on in the process?"

"If everything works out, yes." Ruby nodded, tracking Quicksilver's flight pattern. "And to be honest, dad and I are confident that it's going to work out." 

Blake gave a small nod, looking a little relieved. This was definitely a stressful project and process, especially with how thorough they were about it. 

"So, assuming the house is fine, what would be the next step?" Blake asked, ears and tracking noises. 

"Find a dragon that is compatible, personality wise and housing wise. So with you, find one that isn't too noisy, and is more alert. Protective of their person." Ruby explained, gesturing vaguely. "Probably calmer, not too high drive to handle your job, and what their job would be. Thinking about this case as more of a service animal, rather than a pet, is crucial."

"That's… honestly a good way to put it." Blake let out a low sigh, ears falling a little. "You guys are pretty good at reading people."

"Been doing it for years, comes with the job." Ruby explained. "But thanks! It's a really important part of the job. You don't want to match a high drive dragon to someone that isn't active, and much like people, too different a personality will lead to a more stressful relationship."

"Right." Blake's faint smile came back, and they checked the time on their scroll. 

"Need to do anything else today?" Ruby asked, and Blake shook their head. 

"Mostly an old habit. And honestly, I'm bad at telling what time it is." Blake shrugged, "so I'll check a clock frequently, just to be aware of how much time has passed."

"Well, I've got to run a few errands, fill up the gas tank for dad. Want to stick around for those?" Ruby asked, trying to catch her dragon's gaze. "Not sure if whistling is too loud for you, but need to get Quicksilver's attention."

Blake's smile grew thin. "I can cover me ears. It's pretty high pitched though, not my favorite noise ever. Thanks for the warning." 

Ruby waited until they had covered their ears, then let out a sharp whistle. Quicksilver took notice and made his way back to her, perching on an outstretched arm. Letting her reattach the leash to his harness. 

Ruby followed Blake out of the park, unlocking the car and getting back in. They had spent almost two hours somehow, something Ruby hadn't really been away of. 

Filling the gas tank was pretty much a mindless chat, Ruby just asked about Blake's life, and they were relatively open to the questions. She was interested in the dragon they had growing up, aiming most of the questions at that topic. Blake's memory was pretty good, it seemed, judging by the details that they mentioned. 

Then it was just picking up groceries, something that Ruby had thought of while she was out of the house. Blake seemed content to tag along, help find specific things and carry bags back to the car. As it turned out, lifting books built up decent muscle, so they were pretty strong. Something that she knew from first had experience came in handy with getting a dragon under control. 

"Need me to drop you off at home?" Ruby asked, once all the shopping was done. 

"Yeah, that'd be appreciated. I probably could afford to get a car, honestly, but haven't gotten around to it. License is still valid at least." Blake said in a sigh, foot tapping idly. "Public transportation is just fine right now, but that's probably going to change soon."

"Yeah, it's sometimes hard to do public transportation with a pet, or service animal. People get curious and annoying. But even I don't have my own car yet, this is dad's." Ruby sighed, "Honestly, it was nice to get out of the house, and work for that matter. I work most of the time, and home is connected to the storefront."

"You sound like as much of a homebody as me." Blake chuckled a little, a grin forming. They put in their address into the GPS, and let that take over. 

After dropping Blake off, Ruby went home, after sending a text to Tai, letting him know that she was on her way home with groceries. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blake was done, socially. It was nice to spend time outside of the house, and with someone other than Ilia, but they were still drained by the end of the day. Ready to kick off their boots and just melt into the couch. 

Plus, all the walking around left them hungry. So it was nice to be able to cook up a quick meal, now that the kitchen was stocked up and had some fresh ingredients. 

While making dinner, Blake just let their thoughts wander, which was just reflecting on the day. The realization that really, they needed a service animal. That meant more detailed training, including making sure said dragon was aware of their signs of rising anxiety and stress. 

On the other hand, it was nice to know that both Taiyang and Ruby were optimistic about them and their chance of getting a dragon. Blake had double checked their lease already, making sure that it was fine to have an animal there. That was the first thing they had done, after the suggestion was brought up in the first place. 

Ilia sent a few texts, asking how the day went, and Blake filled her in quickly. Ilia's comment about wanting to meet Ruby was amusing, but it was definitely stemmed from actually thinking she was pretty nice, not being protective of Blake. A nice change of pace, honestly. 

Ilia didn't send too many messages, likely sensing that they were drained. After that, Blake settled into a nice calm and quiet pace, tv turned on low for background noise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all know the drill, let me know what you think of this. chapters of are varying lengths, some are over 3000 words themselves and others are just shy of 2000. depends on the stuff happening basically and how much I get caught up in the chapter.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of the long chapters. Also, the first time I've used Grammarly other than chapter 1, I kept forgetting about it.
> 
> And more bad typing skills that kill me as a writer, but I relate to from my own texting skills

“Blake, please stop pacing!” Ilia let out a low and dramatic sigh, watching her friend pace a literal spotless living room and stress about it. “The room looks fine.”

Blake just gave her a sharp look, ears falling flat. “So you’ve said. Not exactly… helping though.”

“Okay, what would help then?” Ilia sat down on the couch, one eyebrow raised. It made Blake pause in their pacing, gesturing vaguely. “What about rearranging? There’s got to be a way to do that, and you haven’t changed it at all.”

“That… is actually a good idea.” Blake started, taking mild insult at the truth being spoken. “Most people don’t rearrange every three weeks though.”

“Blake… it’s been like, three years and you haven’t changed the layout once.” Ilia sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “And I only do it every… six to nine months. Not three weeks.”

“That’s still frequent. Anyways, yeah… how to rearrange this.” Blake muttered, moving to sit down in their chair. 

“Well, having glare on the screens would be bad, as would having glare from the sun in your eyes when you are watching TV.” Ilia mused, leg bouncing a bit as if it helped her think. Maybe it did, Blake wasn’t sure.

Standing up suddenly, Blake moved over to their desk, looking for a scrap of paper and a pencil. Once they found that, they made a rough sketch on the room, and sat down by Ilia. 

Almost an hour of ideas later, the paper smudged with marks too dark to fully erase and slightly torn at spots, there was finally a layout that settled the anxiety and made sense. Then it was just the chore of moving everything, unplugging all the cords and making sure anything loose was moved out of the way. Meaning a good number of books had to be taken off the two shelves and moved.

“Why do you own so many damn books?” Ilia complained as she set down a stack of books, arms shaking a little. 

“Because I actually read a lot, and it’s good inspiration for writing.” Blake sighed, “Pretty sure a few of these are library books actually…”

“How does someone who works at the library forget to return books?!” Ilia’s voice was thick with confusion and amusement.

“Don’t ask me.” Blake just offered a shrug, “you do know that it is easier to move smaller stacks of books, right? Not like, ten books in one go?”

“Now you mention that.” Ilia glared at them, a smile betraying the faked anger. “So, can I get on a librarian's ass about not turning in books?”

“Not if you want lunch here,” Blake warned, chuckling at Ilia’s thrown up hands, feigning surrender. 

Once everything was cleared off, it was pretty easy to move the furniture. The bookshelves framed the desk, and it was quick to set the computer back up. And the books back up, once Ilia figured out it was best to keep things by last name and not just throwing the books on the shelves. 

Moving furniture wasn’t that hard, and it was a good distraction from rising anxiety. And at the end of the process, it was a refreshing change. There really wasn’t any difference in the amount of floor space, it was just a slightly different shape now. Still, it was definitely refreshing to have that change, and the new layout made room for another chair. 

“Would a new chair be excessive?” Blake asked, one ear flicking curiously. “I mean, the couch and the chair I already have are probably more than enough, but…”

“It’d be excessive, but I fail to see why that is an issue. If you want a new chair, get a new chair.” Ilia shrugged, “hell, we could go out right now, find another chair. Thinking another recliner?”

Blake sent a wither glare to Ilia. “Of course. You try to steal mine all the time, if I’m getting a new one, it will be another recliner so we don’t have to fight over mine.”

Ilia’s laugh and grin was infectious, and the shorter faunus headed to the door, grabbing the keys from the table by the door. “Let’s go then. Do I get to pick?” 

“Just make sure it matches the colors. And is comfortable.” Blake shrugged, shaking their head a little with amusement. “But maybe some lunch first? Moving furniture is hard work.”

Ilia let out a low ‘oh’ and backtracked a bit, sheepish grin forming. “Yeah, that sounds good. Sandwiches good?”

“I was just going to do some of those, yeah.” Blake brushed past her, entering the kitchen. “You just sit back and relax.”

Once lunch was had, just some grilled cheese and potato chips, the two headed out. Ilia drove to several thrift stores before she found a chair that she liked enough and that Blake agreed with as well. A bit beat up, but a really comfortable brown recliner, nearly identical to the one Blake already had. 

A text message caught Blake’s attention, and they pulled their scroll out to read it. Ilia gave a curious look before redirected her gaze to the road.

Ruby: Just chcking to make sure ur good for tomorrow. Wth the house inspection  
Blake: Yup, time is good too  
Ruby: Perfect! See u thn!!!

Blake wasn’t sure all the extra exclamation marks were needed, but they said nothing. Ruby was just excited it seemed, and she added more punctuation when excited. Or dramatic. Or basically any mood. 

“Well, she’s not as awful as you are, but she’s still… dramatic. And can’t send a proper sentence in a text message.” Blake sighed, glancing over at Ilia as they slide the scroll back in their pocket.

“I believe it was you that told me that my texting was the worst on the planet, so glad that I’m still the queen of that.” Ilia grinned, chuckling at Blake’s eye roll. “Should I get worse, to make sure the title is held?”

“Gods no.” Blake gave her a horrified look, “I can barely decipher your texting some days as is!” Ilia’s chuckle only grew louder. “Just drive.”

Once they got back to the apartment and the chair was set up, Blake all but kicked Ilia out, ready to be alone for the rest of the day. Ilia’s face was full of mock offense, a dramatic and loud sigh as she left.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ruby headed out of Summer Scales after finishing paperwork, taking her dad’s car and entering Blake’s address into the GPS. Cranking the radio up very loud, and changing the radio to something better than whatever her family was last listening too. Quicksilver was sitting in the passenger seat, tail twitching and wings flapping just a little, along with to the beat of the music.

Traffic sucked, and stopped at the fifth red light, Ruby let out a low sigh. This is why she left early, of course, to make sure she was on time. But still, she hated traffic. And with the rain, people were driving like they didn’t know how to drive in bad weather, or were afraid of crashing, which while an understandable fear, it was just a light rain and the roads were barely wet.

Once she arrived at the apartment complex, Ruby pulled into Blake’s parking spot, which the faunus had just told her to do since they didn’t have a car anyways and it was hard to find parking spots otherwise and had Quicksilver get on her shoulders. 

Knocking on the door, Ruby checked the time. 3:50, a little early. Traffic wasn’t nearly as bad as she thought it would be. Still, the door opened quickly, Blake peering out with a suspicious glance until they recognized Ruby. Then their face lit up and opened the door fully. 

“Hope you don’t mind I’m a little early,” Ruby muttered, rubbing the back of her head anxiously, stepping into the house and just taking a quick look around.

“It’s not a big deal. Honestly, it’s kind of nice.” Blake shrugged, reclosing the door. Given how their feline ears were pinning back, Ruby assumed they were getting anxious. “Had to kick my friend out, and she was weirdly okay with that for once.”

Ruby gave a nod of acknowledgment, letting Blake take her dragon and put him on their shoulders. Quicksilver gave a happy squeak. “Yeah, that should help keep things organized and less… chaotic. He’ll try to get in everything.” She warned, and Blake gave a thin smile.

“Of course. Anyways, do you want a tour or?” they asked, eyebrows pinching together and ears somewhere between pinned back and perked up. Definitely an anxious reaction, but they did seem curious about how this would work.

“I mean, I can kind of guess, but a tour would be good.” Ruby offered a comforting smile, and Blake’s ears perked up a bit. 

“It’s pretty open concept, but yeah. The kitchen’s right there, the dining room is right across the bar and living room is that corner.” Blake started explaining, pointing everything out with the hand that wasn’t giving Quicksilver chin scratches. “Down the living room is the master, the guest room and the bathroom. Those doors in the hallway is where the laundry room is. It’s more of a closet though.”

“Nice place.” Ruby complimented, and seeing Blake’s face lit up more was reward enough. “You’ll want a scratching post for a dragon for sure, and there’s plenty of space for food and water. Storage for toys. Is there a yard?”

“Sort of.” Blake nodded, leading Ruby to the curtain covered section of the wall. “Sliding door here leads to the patio and ‘backyard’. I can’t fence any bit of it off, and it’s really more of a communal space that private, but I can easily handle that, and the whole area is fenced off anyways.” 

Ruby nodded, a thoughtful hum forming. Blake had everything pretty figured out. “And it’s just you here?”

“Yeah. My friend, Ilia, comes by a lot, but I live alone. And if I’m being honest, I doubt I’d leave a dragon home alone, especially with the reason I’m getting one.”

“Makes sense, I can see that.” Ruby nodded. “But yeah, let me just go through this checklist, it shouldn’t take too long. You don’t mind me poking around?”

“Just don’t take anything or destroy anything.” Blake shrugged, slouching against one of the recliners and letting Quicksilver wander around the living room. There really wasn’t any distinction from the living room to the dinning, apart from the layout of the furniture. 

Like the rest of the process, the checklist that Summer Scales used was very thorough. But it called for nothing outrageous, and they generally didn’t dock points for not having all the supplies at this stage. As long as there was space for everything that would be needed, it was good. Just making sure anything that could prove fatal to a dragon was in a secure location, there was a good pathway around everything, and it was generally clean. 

Once done going through the list, very satisfied with the results, Ruby took a seat on the couch, surprised to find it pretty comfortable despite its less than perfect fabric.

“Did you get this used?” she asked, bouncing a little on the couch and setting down the clipboard.

“Yeah, other than the computer chair and the tech, everything was bought used.” Blake nodded. “Is that an issue?”

“No. Especially if they are let on furniture, dragons will kind of ruin furniture,” Ruby explained with a shrug, watching the silver dragon jump up on the couch and curl up on her legs. “But this already looked a little… less than perfect.”

“Other than appearance-based damage, it’s still pretty good,” Blake explained. “Just don’t see the point in replacing it, and Ilia and I got it when we were still pretty much living paycheck to paycheck. Thrift stores were pretty much the only option we had.”

“Ah, I see. I assume Ilia used to be a roommate?” Ruby asked, and Blake nodded. “Well, I can agree with the ‘why fix it if it isn’t broken’, tends to save money and hassle.” 

“And anyway, I’m a bit attached to this stuff.” Blake sighed. “It’s not pretty, it's seen its share of use, and I honestly prefer that. Didn’t have to break into it, skipped the stiff cushion stage.”

“Oh yeah, that is definitely true. Anyways, I’m done with the inspection.” Ruby started, looking at the shelves. There weren't many photos, one of Blake and who Ruby could assume was their parents, but it looked older. 

“Is it crucial to head back now?” Blake asked, sounding almost sad. “I don’t mind if you stick around, honestly. It’s nice to have company, especially a different person than the normal one.”

“I could probably linger for a bit.” Ruby didn’t stop a smile from spreading, unclipping Quicksilver’s lease. “And this place is very cozy.”

Blake’s smile was pretty damn cute, and they stood up. “Do you want some tea?” they asked, heading towards the kitchen. Quicksilver flew over to perch on their head, nestled between the two ears carefully. 

“Sure. What types do you have?” Ruby asked, craning her neck to continue watching Blake. They just gestured for her to follow them into the kitchen.

“Too many to list. There’s loose-leaf and bagged tea, if you have a preference.” Blake opened a cabinet, and Ruby peered over their shoulder, eyes going wide at the selection. They pulled down some earl grey, presumably for themself. 

Ruby grabbed a fruity tea in the bagged variety, and set the bag in the cup pushed towards her. Blake had started a kettle of water on a back burner, preparing their tea, which was loose-leaf. Ruby watched how they made it, having not really seen that before. If her family bought tea, which was rare since they primarily drank coffee, it was always bags of tea. 

The water was quick to boil, and Ruby took back her dragon and left the kitchen, letting Blake handle everything. It wasn’t the largest kitchen, slightly smaller than the kitchen in her own home. Blake left shortly after her, letting the water absorb the flavor. 

“So…” Ruby let out a small sigh, looking somewhat awkward now. “How come the computer chair is the one thing not bought used?”

“I’m trying to start a career as a writer, so I needed a good chair for the desk,” Blake explained, a small smile forming. “That’s the one thing I’m really picky about.”

“Ah, I see. What genre do you write?” Ruby asked, leaning forward from her slouched position, now curious.

“Mystery, with a touch of romance. Mostly LGBTQ as well.” Blake explained, sounding a little proud. “But I’ll probably venture into other genres to a degree.”

“Nice! Yang is a fan of mystery. I’m more fantasy, I still go back to the old fairy tales. And it’s nice to hear about some LGBTQ, the books we have are... lacking.”

Blake let out a low chuckle, nodding. “Tell me about it. The main character of the one I’m writing right now is non-binary, I’m going for home first. And I can’t actually think of any books that the lead is non-binary.”

“Oh gods, yeah. It’s becoming easier to find books about characters that are gay, but the trans side of the community, well…” Ruby trailed off, shaking her head a bit. “Not a lot.”

“Tell me about it.” Blake started, standing up. “Grabbing the tea really fast. It’s had time to seep, so it’s ready. But yeah, I’ll let you know when the book is going to be released. Keep you updated. It’s still a rough draft.”

Ruby waited until they got back, and took a sip of her tea when it was handed to her. “How hard is writing?”

“I mean, it’s honestly somewhat difficult.” Blake looked thoughtful. “I like being honest about experiences, even if it is fiction. So like, with the protagonist of my current book, they have to deal with the shit I do, the assumptions of gender and the mockery of not using a ‘normal’ pronoun. They’re also bi, like me, so some of that too. The other main character, and the love interest, is ace, drawing from everything I’ve experienced with that.”

“Right.” Ruby let out a thoughtful hum. “But that means it’s probably hard to write what you haven’t experienced.”

“Yeah. It’s easy enough to do research for things, but I like hearing from people that are that identity too, get first-hand knowledge. Not just the science or whatever.” 

“Well, if you ever want to ask about being a trans woman, you can talk to me.” Ruby offered, and Blake’s face lit up. “Happy to help, and honestly, having some more fictional characters like me would be… refreshing. Also, I am very eager for the love interest of the main character, I’m also ace!”

Blake looked the happiest that Ruby had ever seen them, and their bright smile was infectious. The conversation carried over their tea, Blake disclosing minor details about the characters but nothing about the plot, and Ruby trying to get information about the plot. The writer was definitely tight-lipped about it though. 

After a second cup of tea, just because the conversation was too captivating to leave and Blake offered, Ruby left. Traffic was much better now, and the rain had stopped so the roads were already drying. Spring was a weird season, and Ruby wasn’t sure if she liked it or not. It was definitely better than winter, winter was really cold and there was no sun, ever. Summer was the best, nice and warm and the sun was always out. 

Tai looked up from the desk when she walked in, one eyebrow raised. “That took a while. Either that is a good thing for your social life or a bad thing for the house.”

“A good thing for my social life.” Ruby grumbled, “their house is pretty much ideal. Enough space inside, there’s yard space, and there’s space for the supplies for a dragon. They just offered tea and company.”

“I see.” Tai let out a low hum, and Ruby gave him a wary glance. “Letting me know that you were going to be longer would have been nice though.”

“Sorry. Anyways,” she passed the checksheet over, “what else needs to be done today? Do you need me to run the desk?”

“Yeah, I want to look over this.” Tai nodded, “but glad you had a nice chat. Being social is important, and you could use more friends. But yeah, get to work, we can talk about the review. Don’t let any feelings get in the way of work.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also feel free to check out my tumblr (@flurry-of-beaus). It's pretty much random shit posting, but i do post updates to the fic (and a lot of random ships cause im a massive multi shipper)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm not big on the holidays, but in case you are, happy Thanksgiving. Had a free moment, so figured I should post this. 
> 
> and it's not really mentioned, but Yang does have a prosthetic arm in this, it might come up in the later freezerburn fic in the same au

“I know you said that the inspection went well, and I, of course, do trust you,” Tai started once he settled on the couch between his daughters, and Ruby interrupted him before he could continue.

“It’s the standard protocol for us, I’m very aware of that.” Ruby finished, and the greying blonde just gave her a slightly annoyed look. “Forget to ask if I could take photos, so I didn’t, but it was pretty roomy for an apartment, and Blake clearly thinks about floor space. Plus, any cleaning supplies and whatnot were up on a shelf in the laundry closet, meaning a dragon couldn’t reach it easily.”

“I feel like we should keep in mind that they said themselves that whatever dragon they got really wouldn’t be left home anyways,” Yang chimed in, watching Firecracker hop up on the already cramped couch, sprawling out on her lap. She just gave the gold dragon an amused look, shifting to a slightly more comfortable position. “So basically, other than when Blake is home themselves, the dragon would be out with them. You and Blake did both agree on the description of a service animal, right?”

“Yeah. I brought it up when we were just hanging out the other day. I think they knew that’s what they really needed, but hadn’t fully processed that. Just from the look they made.” Ruby nodded, watching Quicksilver jump over to cuddle on top of Firecracker. “That’s more paperwork and training then, isn’t it?”

“Yup. It’s a bit of a hassle, government paperwork always is.” Yang sighed, craning her neck to look over at Ruby. “But I have no issue with that, and I am curious about this new friend you’ve made anyway. Not many people can get you to just hang out.”

“We can talk about this later!” Ruby hissed at her sister, ignoring the shit-eating grin the blonde had. “Sounds like we are all in agreement?”

Both Tai and Yang nodded, and Ruby let out a deep sigh. “Now,” Tai started up again, “it’s getting them here so we can figure a good match for a dragon. Ruby, at some point tonight, get in touch with them, and get that scheduled. Yang, I’d look over the paperwork we have from them, and get some dragons lined up.”

“Sounds good.” Yang nodded, and a small scowl formed on her face. “We really need to do something with Shadowkeeper. One of the other people at this stage would be a perfect home for one of her siblings, but she’s not making anything easy, or me near them at all.” 

“We’ll… figure that out.” Tai sighed, watching Zwei hop up on the couch and curl up between him and Ruby. “So it’s safe to say until we find her a home, we can’t get her siblings out.”

“Yup.” Yang’s voice held a bitter note, and Ruby sighed. “And honestly, we could have easily gotten all of the siblings’ permanent homes already. Not sure why she’s so high strung and protective.”

“Protective you say?” Ruby asked, an idea forming in her mind. Yang’s expression twisted to one of confusion, then realization.

“Ruby she’s not trained at all, and hasn’t liked anyone yet. There’s no way she’s in the line up for a possible candidate for Blake.” Yang started, voice firm. “I’d honestly say she’s more aggressive or defensive than protective. Protective has some chill to it, only flares up when the ones being protected are in danger. She’s somehow convinced that everything is out to get her siblings. And has shown no sign of being trainable.”

“It was just a thought.” Ruby put her hands in the air, sighing. “But you are the one who trains them, you know them best.”

“Well, you two have jobs to do, so get to it.” Tai sighed, turning up the volume on the TV. Both girls sighed, and Yang pushed the dragons off her lap before she walked off, heading back downstairs, and Firecracker followed after her. Ruby moved off to her room, getting Quicksilver to follow her.

Ruby: okay so talked wth the fam, and they all agree that your good to move on to the next step. When is a good chance for you to drop by?

She wasn’t expecting a quick response, not really. Blake had gone to their computer after she left, saying something about doing some writing. Blake defied her expectations however, messaging her back quickly. 

Blake: I can get there after work tomorrow, or I’m off tomorrow. Whichever works best for you guys  
Ruby: I’ll ask Yang when shes ready for you to stop by thn!  
Ruby: how was writing?  
Blake: alright. Got a few more chapters written, still only about halfway through the rough draft  
Blake: Don’t ask for plot details, you know the answer I’ll give  
Ruby: how did you know id ask?  
Blake: this is you we are talking about. Kind of an open book there Ruby.  
Ruby: … fair. Anyways imma go, chat latr  
Blake: night

Quicksilver gave a small squeak, curled up on Ruby’s pillow and glaring at the overhead light. He was definitely tired, he did have a busy day that included exploring a new house. “Let me just change and then I’ll head to bed. Don’t worry.” She told him, muffling a yawn. 

She did briefly send Yang a text, too tired to find her but didn’t want to forget to let her know when Blake was available. After that, Ruby did curl up under her covers and let herself get some sleep. Quicksilver shifted to cuddle better.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As soon as it went off, the alarm was shut off, and Blake pulled themself out of bed, regarding the warm covers with a sad look. Really, if not for work, they would just stay in bed, but they did have to work. Even if the bed was tempting, and just nice and warm. 

Taking their scroll for any messages that came late in the night, which were only from Ilia and just asking how their day was, what they had done, the questions she normally asked. Blake quickly sent a text to her, just the bare minimum details, then started getting ready for work. 

As their tea was boiling, Ruby sent a text to them, mentioning what her sister’s number was and told them to be expecting a message at some point during the day. Another quick response was sent, then Blake just shoved the scroll into their pocket and ignored any future messages. They needed to wake up before talking to any more people. 

Blake just savored their tea and breakfast, then headed off to work, getting a taxi. Getting a car could wait until after this whole process was over, that was yet another hassle and Blake would already half to adjust finances as is. 

Work breezed by thankfully, and during their lunch break, Blake checked for messages. Sure enough, Yang had sent them a message.

Yang: this is Yang, i know ruby mentioned that she gave you my number and to be expecting a text. If you can drop by today after work, i’ve got a few dragons picked out that i think might be good.  
Blake: alright, I’ll be by then. See you soon.  
Yang: Yup! Oh, be warned Firecracker is going to be all up in your business, and he will probably try to set something on fire.  
Blake: I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for the warning though.  
Blake: Anyways, I’m at my lunch, I’ll be by later.  
Yang: sure thing. See you later

Near the end of their shift, Ilia sent a few texts, offering a free ride if they needed one. Blake ended up taking her up on that offer, it saved money and social interaction. It did mean that Blake had to actually inform her about the dragon project and how it was going. 

“So, it’s now just finding the right dragon?” Ilia asked once Blake was settled in the passenger seat. 

“Yeah. That and getting through the process of registering that dragon as a service animal, and more training.” Blake nodded, eyes shut as they slouched against the chair. “Ruby ended up making that reference and really, that’s what I need in the end.”

“Yeah.” Ilia’s tone was somewhat somber, and she turned down the radio a bit. “How are you feeling about that?”

“I mean, I don’t know exactly.” Blake offered a shrug. “It’s a bit of a wake-up slap, but also I’m not really surprised by this either. Just hadn’t really thought about it, I suppose.”

“Right,” Ilia muttered, letting the conversation die down. The rest of the trip was in silence, although Ilia did stop for some coffee and insisted on getting Blake tea before they arrived at Summer Scales. 

Walking into the lobby, Blake offered a small smile at Ruby, who grinned back at them and waved a little. There were a few other people in the lobby, but Blake ignored them. “Yang’s in the first room on the left from the hallway. She’s expecting you.”

Cautiously opening the door, Blake walked in and leaned against the wall, taking in the room. There were a few chairs and a few large cages with dragons in them. A tall blonde woman walked in from the other door, which looked like it lead to some sort of stables or kennel room. 

“Blake, right? We haven’t gotten the chance to meet in person, so just working with Ruby’s description,” she said, closing the door behind her. “I’m Yang.”

“You got the right person, don’t worry.” Blake confirmed, shaking an outstretched hand. A gold dragon pushed through the doggy door, brushing past Yang to sniff at Blake. 

“And that is Firecracker.” Yang chuckled, shaking her head a little. “About as big as they get too, so he’s a handful.”

“Yeah, that’s a little too big for me.” Blake muttered, giving the dragon some ear scritches anyways. “So, what happens now?”

“Well, we need to find the right dragon for you, and also need to get working on the training for said dragon being aware of signs of anxiety or high stress. And of course, paperwork for making sure everything is legal for that.” Yang explained, pulling back on Firecracker’s harness. He sat down, tail flicking with annoyance.

“Alright.” Blake took a deep breath, looking at the cages. Yang caught the gaze, and offered a confident smile.

“This process normally takes a few rounds, so don’t worry about that. This first round is more for initial things. Volume, temperament. A crude trial.” Yang said, glancing at Firecracker. “Why don’t you go bother Ruby, okay?” she asked him, and the dragon tilted his head before walking off. “Works better if he’s not in here.”

The first of the four dragons was let out, a really meek and shy dragon that was too nervous to greet them without encouragement from Yang. She didn’t make a single noise, and seemed really nervous until Yang gestured for her to go back in the cage. 

“Okay, that’s too mild. She’s pretty shy, but she’s really quiet too. Definitely didn’t want to suggest a loud one.” Yang said, giving her a quick ear scritch. “I didn’t want to go too bold the first time.”

The next one was let out, and he all but tackled them, wiggling eagerly. He settled down at Yang’s look, sitting down stiffly beside them. Yang much had noticed the anxious look, because she had him return to his cage. 

“Too hyper?” she asked, and Blake nodded, relaxing a bit. “Thought that might be the case. He’s a sweetheart, super attentive and smart, but has a lot of energy.”

The following two dragons weren’t quite right either, and Yang scribbled something down on a sheet of paper. “It seems weird, but we like to do this first round as a test. If you want to follow me, we’ve got the training room that you can hang out in.”

Blake just offered a shrug, and followed Yang into the room adjacent to the lobby. There was a good number of dragons, running around, and they recognized the hatchlings that had hidden behind them when they had first come by, both of which ran up to them immediately.

“Well hello there, getting big already.” Blake muttered, picking up the dark blue one setting her on their lap after sitting down on an old crate. The smaller dragon started sniffing at them, knocking over their remaining tea.

“Oh cra-” Yang started, and Blake just offered a shrug. “I’ll clean that up. Dragons have a pretty good memory, so she must have taken a liking to you. Her basic training just started, so she’s got a few months before she’ll be up for adoption still.”

“Besides, I don’t think I could put up with a hatchling, especially with my job.” Blake agreed. “Still a cute little thing, so I’m happy to let her cuddle. And I was done with that anyways, it didn’t taste good at all.”

The other hatchling that had hidden behind them in the lobby, a deep magenta one, hopped up and shoved her sister over, earning a chuckle. “Aren’t you just bossy, hm?”

Her little roar was adorable, and she sat down and started to tease her sister with her tail. The blue hatchling was batting at it, only scattering when a purple dragon let out a growl and the magenta one tried to fly off. Yang looked anxious as the purple dragon approached, her tail flicking and eyes narrowed with suspicion. 

Sniffing at Blake, who was just looking at her cautiously, the medium-sized dragon just rested her long snout on their legs, sitting down with a slight thud. Yang’s look of anxiety died down, and she sighed when a few more dragons that looked similar to the purple one padded over. 

“Why’d you look anxious?” Blake asked, giving the dragons some attention and letting the others sniff at their hand.

“Purple one is Shadowkeeper. She’s pretty much mean to everyone and defensive of her clutchmates, and hasn’t really been trained yet as a result.” Yang explained, and the dragon gave an annoyed tail flick at her voice. “Was worried she’d act up. The only reason she’s out here is because the clutch mates are pretty well behaved and we didn’t want to isolate them because of Shadowkeeper.”

“Ah. I take it this is a rare occurrence? Her liking someone?” they asked, and Yang nodded, watching Firecracker settle behind her, glaring at Shadowkeeper.

“She’s a good dragon deep down, but she’s… somehow convinced that the world is out to get her clutchmates and wants to keep them safe.”

“Sounds like a handful.” Blake muttered, watching the dragon then stalk off after her clutchmates wandered away, uninterested. 

“Yeah. Never seen her just approach someone before, especially by herself.” Yang sat down next to Blake, eyes narrowed in thought. “We’ve been trying to figure out what to do with her. She’s holding back her clutchmates getting adopted, and we’ve already found good matches for them. It’s… not a great time and we don’t like missing a good home and match, but she’ll throw an absolute fit if they are missing.”

“I can imagine. Puts you in a weird spot too.” Blake said, looking over at Yang. “I’m guessing it’s somewhat difficult to find a good match?”

“You see how thorough we are, we’ve had a total of three dragons given back in the years we’ve had this place. Our goal is to find the best home possible, and that includes the people. Some personalities just don’t work, and if we can avoid that, that’s best.” 

“Makes sense.” Blake nodded, ears pinned back at a louder growl from one of the dragons nearby. “Well, I’ll let you get back to things.” they stood up, walking out. Yang followed Firecracker fast on her heels. 

“I’ll message you when I’m ready again.” Yang said, “See you around. Oh, and I’m sure Ruby would love to hang out again sometime, so maybe plan something? It’s rare to find her making friends.”

“Of course, she’s great company anyways.” Blake nodded, grabbing their empty cup. “Take care.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know whatcha thing, all the usual shit. I just kinda wanted to let y'all know that the reception this fic has been getting is great, it's been really weird for me to have people liking something I like, but like, in a good way? Why I've been posting chapters as frequently as I have been.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so posting might slow down cause I actually hate editing shit, and this was the last of the fully edited (as of a few minutes ago grammatically) chapters. Also been hitting a writing block with chapter 11 anyways, so yeah.

“Okay, so let me just clarify, Shadowkeeper approached them, didn’t attack and rather rested her snout on their legs, and you still think that she isn’t a good option?” Ruby started, wide-eyed, as her sister told her what had happened.

“Chances are, this is a one-off occasion, and she’s going to revert quickly back. Besides, she’s not trained at all, and that’s just basic training. Let alone more specialized training.” Yang sighed, trying to justify her response. “As eager as we are to get her a home, this is not the case that would be the right one.”

“Well, you know best I suppose. Did you get good info? For what might be a good match?” Ruby asked, swallowing some annoyance. 

“I have a few ideas. This is going to have to be a very specific one, might be harder.” Yang said, watching Firecracker try to take a toy from Zwei. She quickly rediverted her attention to the files they had on the dragons, organizing them into crude piles that overlapped sometimes. 

“Kay, well let me know if you need help.” Ruby started, a low sigh forming. She both loved and hated this part of the process. It was always nice to have an applicant get through the hoops and bounds, but then her job was done. And she was enjoying working with Blake, hanging out in general.

“Well, if you could look into the service animal thing more, the forms and requirements, that’d help. We don’t have a lot of dragons, grand scheme of things, but there’s still a lot. Even focusing on just the medium-sized ones.” Yang muttered and looked up when Tai put a cup in front of her. “Thanks,” she muttered, and Ruby accepted the cup passed to her. 

“Well, if you two are going to pull a late night, you’ll need some energy for that.” Tai muttered, walking off to his room. “Get some sleep at some point.” 

Logging on to her laptop, Ruby waited for the web browser to load, then started doing research. They hadn’t had many cases like this, even though they were able to do this. So the whole family was a little rusty on the process. 

A beep from her scroll came with a text, drawing her attention from the computer. Seeing the message was from Blake caused a small smile to form, and Ruby quickly unlocked the scroll.

Blake: are you free this weekend? Ilia was pestering me to meet you, probably for lunch or something.  
Ruby: Yeah i can get time off work for that!  
Blake: perfect, see you then!

“What’s with the smile?” Yang asked, her tone suspiciously knowing and definitely a bit of a tease.

“Something tells me that you know. But Blake asked if I was free this weekend, so most likely going to spend some time with them.” Ruby explained, diverting her gaze to the computer again. “Remind me to talk to dad about that in the morning.”

“Sure sure.” Yang nodded, shuffling papers around. “Well, we can cross off about half the dragons in that size category, and of course the ones that we tested today. Realistically, probably could cross off another chunk of them, but I want to see the range I’m working with.”

“Fair. Well, research is going well enough, we’ll have to print out a form or two and make sure the dragon has some really thorough training, like more thorough than our adoption process.”

“Damn, that’s rough.” Yang let out a low whistle, looking impressed. “And we are sure that they classify for service and not just emotional support?”

“Pretty sure, but I can ask how bad it can get this weekend. And Ilia, their friend, and apparently former roommate, wanted to meet, something tells me she can help too. Blake mentioned that she was there through everything.”

“Right. Well, how was work for yourself?” Yang changed the topic, glancing over at her sister and leaning back in her computer chair.

“Alright, just applications to look through and a few interviews and house inspections scheduled.” Ruby sighed. “The usual, basically.”

“The usual is nice. At least it’s not the holiday season yet.” Yang set down her cup of cider, and rotating the chair. “You’d think people would learn that pets make awful presents for a kid. Not like a stuffed animal.”

“Well, people get hopeful and other places kind of give that reputation too. But then, look at their rates of returns because it didn’t work out. Says something.” Ruby took a sip of her cocoa, trying to muffle her pride a bit. “It’s a pain in the butt, I’m sure, for the applicants, but hey, at least by the end of the process, they have a good companion that fits in.”

“Yeah. Anyways, Blake seems pretty nice. Seemed a little stressed though.” Yang looked over at Ruby, reading her expression.

“They were just about as stressed the first time we meet, and just from what I’ve heard, has dealt with some really bad people.” Ruby shrugged, careful about her wording. She wasn’t sure how much she should disclose or the best way to say it, and she really didn’t know much either. “Plus, most people are a bit stressed by the dragon meeting processes anyways.”

“Fair. If those hatchlings weren’t too young and would take too long to train, I’d suggest one of them. Blake’s good with the hatchlings. I mean, they are going to be on the big end anyways, but the hatchlings went right to them again.” Yang said, “And they admitted that they didn’t really want a hatchling anyways, just with their energy levels.”

“Must have been cute though. They are still small, but growing fast. Hatchlings cause any trouble?”

“Little Blue knocked over their tea, but otherwise, not at all. And Blake was really patient with her too, her and Magenta.” Yang said, a small smile formed. “I know this is a family business, but they’d be a good employee here. Could use another trainer, if they ever want a new job.”

“That’s the first time you’ve ever said anything. Why trainer though?”

“Have you seen them interact with people? Given their current job too, people probably aren’t their favorite thing.” Yang explained, shaking her head a little. “Now, they were pretty good with dragons, and pretty relaxed around them. Even was good with Firecracker’s curiosity, and he can unnerve people.”

“Right. Well, I’m going to bed.” Ruby said, muffling a yawn. “See you in the morning.” Quicksilver perked up from his spot on the couch, definitely recognizing the word ‘bed’. Yang muttered a small ‘good night’, watching Ruby walk off and Quicksilver fly over to her shoulder. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next two days rushed by, Blake just working and waiting for news from Yang. They managed to get a few more chapters written, with a few scrapped ones as well. Writer’s block wasn’t fun, and Blake knew the feeling of it setting in. 

It was probably mostly due to anxiety setting in as time passed. They definitely understood the need for a long and thorough process, but it was unsettling. Not wanting to add more pressure to Yang either, Blake was content enough to just wait for news, and not pester her. 

Saturday morning, Ilia arrived with some fast food, her first instinct to check the kitchen. And she was thoroughly surprised to find it just restocked without her interference, and Blake just buried their nose in a book to avoid seeing Ilia’s expression. It was a stupid thing for her to proud about, and just reminded Blake how much they had fallen. 

“So, what’s the plan with Ruby?” Ilia asked, definitely picking up the mood that had fallen over the room. Blake’s ears perked back up, and they lost some of the slouch.

“She’s going to come here, around noon, and we can figure it out after that.” Blake explained, life returning to their voice. 

“Oh, that was a happy tone.” Ilia’s smile turned to a knowing one, and Blake just fixed a glare on her. “And yup, settles it.”

“Ruby is a friend. That’s all. Last thing I need right now is anything more than that.” Blake grumbled, not really in the mood to defend themself. “That’s almost as bad as people assuming we are a couple.”

“Oh please, people still think that?” Ilia’s voice had a shocked tone to it, and Blake nodded with a thin smile. “How?”

“Don’t ask me. I guess you just make me about as relaxed as I can be. People read that shit as romantic now.” Blake shrugged, a pointed look at their friend.

“Okay so teasing you about having a friend at the bare minimum is not okay. Got it. But just from what I’ve heard, she does sound pretty nice. And cute.” Ilia shrugged, slouching against the other recliner. “And getting this chair was perfect, if you ever don’t want it I will take it.”

“Yeah that’s not getting replaced. Don’t steal it.” Blake’s look turned to a mock glare, and Ilia put her hands up in mock surrender, laughing a little. 

The conversation died briefly while they ate, Blake making sure the garbage was taken care of. And while in the kitchen, they made a pot of tea and pulled down two cups. The sound of the TV being turned on, and it’s volume up as well, was a minor distraction.

“How can you hear the TV?” Ilia asked, voice rich with confusion. “It was like, at 5!” Blake just leaned out of the kitchen and wiggled their feline ears for a second. “Right…” Ilia’s voice turned to a drawl.

Once the tea was done, Blake brought it to the living room, settling back in their chair after pouring themself a cup. Ilia faked offense, but poured herself a cup anyways. They just watched the programmed shows until the doorbell rang, and Blake checked the clock. Right around noon.

Opening the door to see Ruby, they offered a warm smile, and let the short girl in. Locking the door before following her back to the main room. 

“Ruby, that’s Ilia. Ilia, Ruby.” they made introductions, noting their reactions to each other. Ilia’s freckles were taking a pinkish color as she clearly thought that Ruby was cute, and Ruby clearly found the color changing adorable, judging by her small giggle. Blake tried to ignore how light their heart felt at that noise. They hadn’t noticed, but Ruby was a few inches shorter than Ilia, something that no doubt made Ilia happy.

Ruby took a seat on the couch, and Quicksilver popped out of her red hoodie’s pocket. Ilia’s small gasp as the little dragon flew over to investigate her, and the decision to settle on her lap, was adorable, and Ruby smiled. “That is Quicksilver.”

“He is precious. Can I keep him?” Ilia asked, eyes wide. Ruby shook her head quickly, and Blake gave her a perplexed look.

“I thought you didn’t want a pet.” they commented, tilting their head a bit with curiosity.

“I was joking. I don’t have the time to take care of an animal.” Ilia grumbled, watching the dragon move over to his owner. “He didn’t have to move…”

“He does that a lot. Especially around a lot of people.” Ruby explained. “Anyways, it’s nice to meet you. I hear you are the reason Blake stopped by Summer Scales?”

“Yeah, I might have encouraged them to get a dragon, or any type of pet in general.” Ilia nodded. “They are my best friend, but they should not live alone. And don’t like people.”

“People are loud. Why didn’t I take your key when you moved?” Blake grumbled, eyes narrowed at the other faunus. 

“Because it slipped your mind, and I wasn’t giving it up.” Ilia responded, her tone as cheeky as her words were. “Anyways, how is that going?”

“Well, it’s just finding the right dragon. Reminds me, I wanted to ask a few questions, related to the service animal thing.”

“Fire away.” Blake sighed, looking over at Ruby. Watched Quicksilver run over to them, sniffing at them and debating on whether or not to settle on their lap.

“So, Yang had me look up the process for getting an animal registered as a service animal, and it also brought up emotional support animals too. I just wanted to know if your anxiety was an issue everywhere, or only occasionally flared up?”

Ilia spoke up before Blake could. “I’d say it is an issue everywhere. Can get in the way of pretty much existing and having any sort of life.” At the withering look Blake gave her, she fixed a look at them. “You know its true.”

“Yeah, she’s right. I’m… not the best at noticing it until it’s too late, and it’s just… bad in general.” Blake let out a defeated sigh, slouching further into the chair. 

“Yeah, definitely a service animal then. And Blake?” Ruby paused until they looked over at her, “it’s not a bad thing. I mean, from what little you’ve said, sounds like you might as well have gone through hell.”

“I mean, I haven’t really said much about it.” Blake looked off to the side, biting the inside of their cheek. 

“I kind of read between the lines, and what little was said is kinda… telling.’’ Ruby’s voice was soft and caring, and Blake glanced back at her. Her gaze was soft, and some of Blake’s anxiety melted a little.

“Anyways.” Ilia cleared her throat, drawing both sets of eyes to her. “So other than work, what do you do?” 

“Uh, nothing?” Ruby offered, shrugging. “Work keeps me pretty busy, and since it’s a family business, just my dad and sister and I. Sometimes our uncle will pay a visit, help out. When he’s not traveling around at least.”

“Ah, yeah I can see how that can get busy.” Ilia muttered, watching the dragon run around. “Can’t believe I found another homebody though. What are the odds.”

“Hey!” Blake and Ruby objected, Ruby’s eyes wide and Blake’s ears pinning back. Ilia let out a laugh that she couldn’t hold back, earning two sharp glares.

A ping from their scroll distracted Blake, and they checked that instead of responding to Ilia. Seeing the message was from Yang, they let out a deep sigh.

Yang: I’ve got more dragons lined up, if you are free  
Blake: I probably could ditch the short people. They seem to be getting along well enough  
Yang: damn, remind me to not hang out with you then. Drop of the hat thing like this is more important?  
Blake: the sooner we find the right dragon, the sooner we can start the training.  
Blake: also Ilia is being mean to both Ruby and I. called us homebodies to our faces  
Yang: Isn’t that true of you? I know it is of Ruby  
Blake: Yes but keep that thought to yourself please  
Blake: I’m heading out, be there soon

“Well, don’t burn this place down, I’m heading to Summer Scales. Yang apparently has more dragons lined up.” Blake stood up, grabbing a jacket and their keys. “Feel free to linger around here, just don’t eat everything.”

“I can drive you there. I’m kind of curious about how this will go.” Ruby offered, jumping to her feet. Ilia faked a gasp of betrayal, and Blake just gave her an unamused look. “It was really nice to meet you, though.”

“Same, and I’m sure I could find something to do in town. Or just linger here.” Ilia’s tone was pretty neutral, she looked perfectly comfortable in the chair. “Don’t have too much fun though.”

“Right…” Blake said, pausing at the door and making sure they had everything. “Just lock up when you leave, or I will take that key back.” 

Ruby followed them out, Blake not objecting to not having to pay for a taxi. And could understand the awkward feeling of being left to hang out with someone else’s friend, so they weren’t going to say anything. Ignoring an accidental hand brush as Ruby went to open the passenger door at the same time Blake did, and hoping Ruby didn’t notice how they looked away awkwardly, Blake got in the car. Of course Ruby was a gentlewoman, and Blake was finding it harder to just classify Ruby as a friend and not as a crush with that knowledge. Quicksilver settled on their lap as Ruby got in on the driver's side, giving them a suspicious look that died as he got some ear scritches.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know whatcha think of this, and yea... hope ya liked it


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologizes for the delay, I really don't like to edit and was being stubborn about it, then also kinda hyperfixating on other shit then too, so just was not productive. Also, chapter 11 is long as fuck, at least 4,000 words so y'all are in for a treat.

Once they pulled into the parking spot, Blake passed Ruby’s dragon back to her and got out of the car. Ruby followed quickly, getting Quicksilver on her shoulders. Blake managed to beat her to the door, meaning they could be the dapper one and hold it open for her, and Ruby’s small smile absolutely killed them. 

“Yang should be in the same room as last time.” Ruby told them, going to the front desk to talk to Taiyang. Blake didn’t pay much attention to their conversation, walking off. Sure enough, Ruby was right, and Yang’s warm smile greeted them.

“Please tell me Ruby didn’t speed to get here?” She started, leaning against the wall and glancing up at the clock.

“She didn’t. There just was no traffic.” Blake explained, and Yang gave a small hum. “Anyways, ready whenever you are.”

“Alright. So this is still a bit experimental right now since I’m trying to find the range that I’ll have to work with.” Yang explained, moving over to the first of five cages. “Trying to figure out energy levels right now. Volume is pretty much settled.”

The first of the dragons didn’t even get up from the cage when it’s door was opened, laying down comfortably and looking up at Yang with a content look. “She’s one of the lazier dragons we have. Needs a lot of encouragement to get up or do anything.”

“That… might not be the best option.” Blake started, watching the red dragon get up after a sharp look from Yang. The dragon was nice enough and was really calm, but Blake was pretty sure that she was too low of energy.

“Yeah, like I said, just finding the range. She’s not self-starting enough, which I thought she would be. But calm enough?”

“Yeah, about this calm is ideal.” Blake nodded, giving the dragon an affection ear scritch. 

Yang had to encourage her back into the cage, and once she was in there, the dragon laid back down and got comfortable again. The next dragon was let out, more self-starting and curious, but was a little too distant from Blake after sniffing at their hand. He seemed a little too uninterested, and Yang quickly had him go back.

“Yeah… that's what I thought. He’s… something. Good dragon, just very picky. I was hoping he’d take an interest in you.” Yang sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. 

“YANG!” a loud shout distracted both of them, and Yang opened the door. “Need some help with the dragons!” 

“One second, dad!” Yang called back, offering an apologetic look to Blake. “You good if I take a second?”

“I could try to help, if you don’t mind.” Blake offered, and the look of relief, and gratitude, was nice to see. Blake then followed Yang to the training room, ears pinning back with rising anxiety. 

Firecracker was facing off against Shadowkeeper, the purple dragon’s wings flared out and tail dangerously still, her back turned towards her clutch mates. Blake immediately moved to block Shadowkeeper’s sight of Firecracker, the dragon dropping her guard a little, but still worked up. Yang passed Blake a worried look, but did the same with Firecracker. 

“What happened?” Yang asked her father, eyes narrowed. Shadowkeeper let out another low growl, stopping at Blake’s quick snap. 

“Firecracker wanted to play with the clutch mates, and she got upset about that.” Tai started, slight awe in his voice. “Blake did she just… stop growling? At your snapping?”

“Yeah.” Blake nodded, trying to keep surprise out of their voice. “Is that not normally what happens?”

“Uhhh, yeah. She normally doesn’t listen to us. Yang, get Firecracker away from here.” Tai gave out orders, shaking the surprise from his voice. “Blake, keep an eye on Shadowkeeper, maybe try talking her down, see how that goes.”

“Alright.” Blake nodded, keeping the gaze on the panther-like dragon. “Shadowkeeper, it’s okay, he was just trying to be nice. Not out to get the siblings.” They started talking in a soothing voice, lowering themself to her eye level, watching her every reaction. The clutch mates looked interested in them, wings fluttering ever so slightly.

Shadowkeeper’s wings folded down along her body again, tail still twitching ever so slightly and eyes narrowed. Blake kept talking to her, urging her to approach. The dragon was relatively receptive, slowly approaching them and letting them give her ear scritches. Slowly calming down, Blake only stopping once her breathing had returned to normal. 

“Yang, I’d seriously consider Shadowkeeper. This is the first time she’s ever responded that well to anyone.” Taiyang muttered, and Blake looked over at them, a curious ear flick. While talking the dragon down, they had ended up sitting down, Shadowkeeper resting her head in their lap. “She’d be more training, but this could give her an outlet for her defensive nature.”

“I… I can consider her.” Yang sighed, eyes shut. Firecracker was hiding behind her legs, peering around her legs at Shadowkeeper. “That was… pretty risky there, Blake.”

“Mmm? I guess it could have been.” Blake shrugged, leaning back as much as they could without disturbing the dragon. She didn’t even react when her clutch mates went to play with Firecracker, content to get ear scritches, despite an annoyed tail flick. “It just seemed like the quickest way to distract her from Firecracker.”

“And what if she had attacked you instead?” Yang asked, sounding like she was trying to shove down both worry and irritation.

“I could have gotten out of the way. And my family’s dragon was a bit temperamental anyway, so I know how to restrain a dragon in case of a fight.” Blake explained, ignoring the touch of guilt that rose at the thought of their parents. “But her body language wasn’t 'attack', it was 'defend'. Ready to jump if needed, but not looking for a fight.”

“Oh?” Taiyang asked, eyebrows pinching together. “You think so?” His voice was curious and surprised.

“Yeah, seen it hundreds of times. As I said, my family’s dragon was temperamental, he liked to pick fights. Seen the difference in body language from him and his targets a thousand times.” Blake nodded, “what’s her story? How’d you get her?”

“Found her and her clutch mates in a falling-apart cardboard box, during the coldest season of winter.” Taiyang explained, “couldn’t have been more than a few days old. She was covered in snow, on top of her siblings. Hasn’t trusted anyone, ever. She was a little beat up too, why the tip of her left horn is gone.”

“Hmm.” Blake looked down at the dragon, who was just looking up at them with an annoyed expression, most likely because the attention had shifted away from her and their fingers had stilled. Blake resumed the ear scritches, and Shadowkeeper’s look died down. 

“So, I’m going to have to deal with all of this mess, so if you could come by another day, we can do another round of dragons.” Yang sighed, moving to exit the room. Firecracker didn’t follow her, wrestling with the other dragons now. “Make sure another fight doesn’t break out I guess.”

“What was with your comment? The one about how she should consider Shadow?” Blake asked, looking up at Taiyang. They also shifted the ear scritches to get at the base of her horns, and a low rumble like purr started. 

“Ruby noticed the interaction she had with you last time and was already sort of thinking maybe Shadowkeeper anyways. Since a protective dragon would be best for you.” he started to explain, glancing over at them. “Yang was pretty adamant about how that wasn’t smart, since she’s barely even trained, and is almost too fast to get to the defense.”

“Ah,” Blake muttered, glancing back at the dragon. “Probably overwhelmed here, with all the other dragons. I wonder who had her egg, might have been someone else doing dragon breeding. Too many dragons, not enough space to process that she’s in a safe place.” 

“That theory holds water. The clutch mates have a pretty good temperament, but they can be a little too submissive. Older hatchlings bullying them definitely could have affected that, and they are smaller than Shadowkeeper.” Taiyang muttered, tapping his foot. A corgi ran over to him, panting and barking a little. “Oh, this is Zwei, the family dog.”

“Didn’t realize you had one.” Blake tried to calm their nerves and keep said nervousness out of their voice, but the older man still picked the dog up and kept him over by him. Shadowkeeper’s purrs turned to a growl, shifting a little to be more in front of them.

“Don’t worry, if I send him off, he’ll go upstairs.” Taiyang offered, and Blake shook their head. “Will have to mention Shadowkeeper’s response to that though.”

“He’s a smaller dog, it’s fine. More just surprised me, he’s fine. It’s the bigger ones I’m not as fond of.” Blake took a deep breath, and the purple dragon regarded them with a concerned look, but settled down, growling ceasing. “That being said, I might head out. Don’t want to loiter too much, and it sounds like there’s going to be a lot to think about.”

“As long as you leave when the shop closes, I don’t care if you stick around. It’s refreshing to see Shadowkeeper actually like someone. And really, Ruby could spend some time hanging out with you anyways.” 

“Oh, okay.” Blake hadn’t shifted to stand up, and hearing that they weren’t bothering him was reason enough to stay seated. Tai started to walk off, carrying Zwei. While he was in the lobby, he said something to Ruby. Shortly after that, Ruby entered the training room and offered a comforting smile.

“Well, dad insisted I take more time off work, and since you are here, to hang out with you.” She chuckled, sitting down and looking at Blake’s predicament. Shadowkeeper had shifted to lay back on their lap, holding them down. “You look comfy.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After hours and everyone had left, the family had headed upstairs, and just started destressing. Or at least, attempting to. Ruby was convinced that Shadowkeeper was perfect for Blake, especially with how she had behaved, and hearing about how they had handled her getting defensive, there was no way that pairing wouldn’t work. Tai was thoroughly convinced as well, but Yang was still on the defense about how she wasn’t trained yet, and was a quick temper.

“I am just saying. She’s too snappy and possessive for being a service animal.” Yang reiterated, eyes now red, as she was sort of ganged upon by her family. 

“She settled right down when Blake told her to, and they could handle her. Hell, she didn’t even get snappy again, even when the siblings did end up playing with Firecracker.” Tai pointed out, trying to keep his annoyance out his voice. “And she immediately picked up Blake’s anxiety when Zwei startled them. Moved to make sure he didn’t get too close.”

“That would be the exact reason Blake is getting a dragon, to keep an eye on the anxiety and keep anything that made them too anxious away from them.” Ruby pointed out, eyes narrowed. “Why aren’t you convinced?”

“Blake already will have to deal with more training as is, a mostly untrained dragon would just make this even longer of a process. That’s the reason why a hatchling wouldn’t be a good idea.” Yang sighed, slamming down on the couch. Quicksilver flew away from her, spooked. He settled on top of the bookshelf, eyeing her up nervously. 

“Can you name one other dragon that would be a good match now? Because the longer we try to find another match, the longer this takes.” Tai pointed out, meeting Yang’s gaze. “It could take longer than finishing basic training and the service animal training.”

Yang didn’t respond, looking away. Ruby moved over to sit next to her. “What if we tried a trial round, like, two or three monitored days of Blake having Shadowkeeper at their place? Keeping tabs, seeing how well that goes.”

“What about finishing basic training?” Yang asked, trying to keep her voice calm. “Something like that could only work if she was fully trained in the first place.”

“That’s when we could finish her training too. Even if it doesn’t work out, that would be a chance to train her.” Ruby suggested. 

“Would they even… would Blake even be okay with something like that?” Yang asked after a deep breath, eyes shifting back to her normal lilac. 

“I mean, it’s pretty simple, ask them. But if we do that, at the end of the trial, if everything goes well, then we say that Shadowkeeper is the best match for Blake, and start the training we have to do anyways.” Tai said, in his ‘my foot is down on this’ voice. 

Yang let out a deep sigh, eyes shut for a few moments. “Fine, we can ask if they are okay with that. If they are okay with having more training to do. Ruby, do you want to ask, or should I?”

“I can.” She offered a small smile, and Yang gave her a thin smile back in response. She pulled out her scroll, opening her messaging app. 

Ruby: OK, family talked about this. Would u be willing to have a bit more training then expected, to finish Shadowkeeper’s basic training? And a few test days, to see if shed even work well for u. Tst days would be monitered  
Blake: Yeah, that would be fine. Why?  
Ruby: Dad and I agee, Shadowkeeper is probably the best dragon for u, and u could handle her outburst, get her to calm down the fastest. Yang only would agre if u were fine wth longer training  
Blake: Ahhh. I’d be fine with that.  
Ruby: Perfect! Ill let them know

“Okay, they said they are fine with more training, and monitored test days.” Ruby relayed the message across, and Yang gave a defeated shrug. 

“Fine, we need to make sure they’ve got all the supplies then, and as soon as supplies are obtained, we can handle that paperwork,” Yang muttered, eyes shutting again. 

Ruby returned to her scroll, and sent a few more messages to Blake.

Ruby: okay do u have all the supplies u’d need?  
Blake: I can get everything I don’t have tomorrow, I’ve got tomorrow off  
Ruby: If I tag along, I could give recommendations for stuff too. Like brands and whatnot  
Blake: Sure, I was going to need a ride anyways. Come by around 8 ish  
Ruby: Kay!

“Okay, they can get everything tomorrow, I offered to go with, make recommendations for what we buy.” Ruby filled her father and sister in, and they both gave small nods. “I can restock on some supplies while I’m out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all know the deal, let me know whatcha think cause I need validation and just love reading comments anyways. Hope ya liked this chapter.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know if you ever think its OOC of course, and just let me know what you think of it. There is no explicit schedule for posting either, whenever I finish editing things.


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